Chapter 2 Legendary relic

The cold did not come from the weather. It came from electrical conduction shutting down my nerves. It felt like thousands of electromagnetic needles stabbing directly into my brainstem, forcing my nearly dead consciousness to crawl back to the surface.

I coughed violently. Thick metallic-black fluid erupted from my throat, stinging my tongue with the nauseating taste of rusted iron. When I tried to push myself up on my arms, agony shot through my broken ribs, triggering the visual projector embedded in my corneas to flicker frantically.

High-Sync Disconnection Error.

My natural nervous system was at war with the remnants of a neural integration that had been forcibly severed.

"Damn it..." I muttered hoarsely as I crawled out of the pool of cyber sludge along the edge of the Mana River waste trench. "Ryker... that bastard..."

Before I could steady my breathing, the concrete ceiling of The Underbelly, the deepest slum district beneath this futuristic city, suddenly lit up. Massive holographic projections pierced through the gaps between gas pipelines and iron bridges overhead.

My own face, the face that had been worshipped by millions only hours ago as the "Digital Miracle of the World," now filled the sky in brutal high resolution against a violently flashing red background.

STATE FUGITIVE: KAELAN ARDENT

STATUS: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS / SHOOT ON SIGHT

Three hundred people dead.

A fictional number crafted with meticulous precision.

I clutched my throbbing head. I was there. I saw it with my own eyes. Ryker had executed the virus release command from his primary terminal, then manipulated the server's digital signature under my name within minutes.

They had not merely destroyed my reputation.

They had erased my existence.

"Holy crap! That bounty's huge, bro!"

The raspy voice from behind a stack of drainage pipes made me freeze.

Several homeless men who normally curled up on cardboard now stood staring at the hologram, greed glittering in their eyes.

"That kind of money could get us out of this sewer and let us live like kings in the middle sectors until we die!" another shouted while sharpening a rusted knife.

I immediately pulled up the hood of my tattered Aegis hoodie, hiding my face beneath fabric soaked with data waste.

The remnants of neural synchronization still lodged in my nerves vomited streams of distorted information into my mind. I did not need smart glasses to know what was happening in the world above.

Millions of curses, insults, and demands for my execution were flooding the global data stream.

A burning heat spread through my chest.

Victor Sterling, the absolute owner of Nexus Corporation, was probably sitting in his luxurious penthouse right now, sipping whiskey while watching the death circus he had created for me.

The Ardent family name had been the last obstacle standing between Sterling and total control of the Mana System. By branding me a terrorist, he had killed two birds with one stone. He eliminated the technological heir and seized every research asset left behind by my late father.

A high-frequency hum shattered my thoughts.

A Nexus Type-7 Sentinel Drone descended from the canal ceiling, its red sensor lens rotating dynamically as it searched for targets.

I dropped to the ground, trembling as I avoided the drone's line of sight.

Unfortunately, three young men spotted me.

"Hey, look over there! Don't move!"

The harsh shout echoed through the tunnel.

The three men approached from the emergency exit. The one in front had a muscular build and an outdated cybernetic prosthetic for a right arm that hissed with leaking hydraulic oil. His two companions carried thermal machetes whose blades were already glowing red.

I tried to stand, but my fractured ribs sent a wave of pain through me so intense that my vision flashed white.

"We hit the jackpot tonight, boss," the skinny one on the right sneered, pointing at my clothes. "Limited-edition Aegis hoodie, fresh blood on the neck, and that pathetic way of walking. That's him."

The iron-armed leader stepped forward, displaying a row of rust-stained teeth.

"Well, well... Kaelan Ardent? The world's shining star has fallen into my gutter? What a beautiful sight. Turns out even a genius still has filth beneath his feet."

I wiped the blood from the corner of my split lip and stared at them through my wet bangs.

"I don't have time to deal with trash like you. Move."

"Pretty arrogant for the world's number one international fugitive."

The man laughed dryly, then his expression suddenly turned cold.

"Do you know how much your head is worth if I hand it over to Nexus police? I could buy every district in Sub-Sector Nine! Get up now, or I'll drag your legless corpse there myself!"

I clenched my trembling fists.

My anger surged.

They had already taken everything from me, my career, my name, my home. And now these sewer rats wanted to use my head as an express ticket to wealth?

"Do you know why world-class athletes are still dangerous even when they're injured?" I asked quietly, settling into a fighting stance despite every part of my body protesting.

"To hell with your theories!"

The man charged.

His cybernetic arm swung horizontally at tremendous speed, a raw punch capable of smashing through a concrete wall in a single blow.

But to someone who had spent more than a dozen hours a day inside high-intensity combat simulators, the attack felt slow.

Far too slow.

Even without digital assistance, the combat instincts etched into my muscles could read every frame of his movement.

I lowered my body, allowing the iron fist to whistle a few inches above my head.

Using his momentum, I twisted and slammed my palm directly into the joint of his mechanical elbow, the fatal weakness of a cheap Junkyard-model prosthetic.

I released the last remnants of neural energy through my fingertips.

The backlash felt as if my brain were being crushed, but the effect was immediate.

The internal components of his prosthetic short-circuited, spewing blue sparks that scorched his own flesh.

"Bastard!"

He jumped backward, clutching his now-dead arm.

"Get him! Kill him! Sterling said even his corpse is worth a fortune!"

The two thugs behind him shouted and swung their thermal machetes. The heated blades hissed through the darkness of the underground city.

My breathing quickened.

The helplessness inside me transformed into a cold, pure rage.

In my eyes, these two men were no longer human. They were corrupted viral distortions that needed to be permanently deleted from the server of my life.

But my biological body had already reached its limit.

An unbearable pain suddenly slammed into my chest, cutting off the flow of oxygen.

My vision instantly went black.

My legs gave out beneath me, and I collapsed forward just as one of the thermal blades came within inches of severing my neck.

The two attackers froze for a moment, confused as their target collapsed on his own before their weapons ever touched him.

"Is he... already dead?" the skinny one asked uncertainly.

"Who cares!"

The leader strode forward with a furious expression, raising his heavy cybernetic combat boot above my face, which was half-submerged in the mud.

"We'll just take his head!"

As the iron sole hovered inches from my temple, at the very moment I surrendered because my entire biological nervous system had completely shut down...

Something foreign surged violently through my bloodstream.

The ticking of an ancient wall clock echoed deafeningly inside my skull.

Then suddenly, the entire world fell silent.

Within the darkness of my vision, a line of pure snow-white code appeared without warning, cutting through my malfunctioning visual system.

INITIALIZING ARCHAIC ALGORITHM...

SUBJECT: ARDENT, KAELAN.

SITUATION: CRITICAL / POTENTIAL ORGANIC DECEASE.

PROTECTION SYSTEM: EMERGENCY OVERRIDE.

A warm sensation, both burning and soothing, flowed rapidly from the base of my brain, crawling downward through every inch of my spine.

My damaged and severed nerves were suddenly being taken over and rewoven by something far beyond the limits of modern human technology.

The pain was real.

My head throbbed violently.

Yet my fear eclipsed even that pain.

Another transparent notification window unfolded before me, shining with a majestic white radiance.

DRAGON[ALERT: ADAPTIVE SYNCHRONIZATION UNAUTHORIZED.]

DOPAMINE PRODUCTION ENHANCED BY 'WHITE DRAGON'...

My world no longer felt the same.

This was no longer the story of a miserable man running for his life.

It was the awakening of a pure hunting algorithm.

And somehow...

I felt strangely familiar with all of it.